Budget 2013: CCS projects capture Decc's backing

The chancellor confirmed in the budget that two carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects had been selected for the next stage of the UK's £1 billion CCS commercialisation programme

The Peterhead CCS project is a joint venture between Shell and SSE, and involves retrofitting a 340MW post-combustion capture installation at an existing gas-turbine power station in Aberdeenshire.

The other selected project, White Rose, proposes to install an oxyfuel CCS process to capture emissions from a new 304MW coal-fired power station on the Drax site in North Yorkshire. The project involves Alstom, Drax and BOC in cooperation with National Grid.

The government now plans to agree terms by the summer for front-end engineering design (FEED) studies – technical requirements and an estimate of costs – with the two preferred bidders. The FEED stage will last up to 18 months, and the government expects to make a final decision on investment in early 2015.